Orioles 'assumed' to use Tyler Wells as starting pitcher

The Baltimore Orioles are expected to add to their pitching staff this offseason.

The club's new president of baseball operations Mike Elias has hinted at the willingness to spend on a big-name free agent, while USA Today insider Bob Nightengale stated that people around the league believe that Baltimore will be the "most aggressive team looking for pitching this winter."

If the O's follow through on these reports and add an arm or two this offseason, they could be forced to do some reshuffling to a pitching staff that featured 16 different starters this past year. They roll into 2026 with a bonafide ace in Trevor Rogers, and can pencil in Kyle Bradish and Dean Kremer as starters behind him.

Baltimore may lose 2025 starters Tomoyuki Sugano and Zach Eflin to free agency. But they will also have Cade Povich (20 starts last year) and Grayson Rodriguez on the fringe looking to carve out a full-time role next season.

That leaves Tyler Wells, who returned from UCL surgery in September to make four starts for the Orioles. At 30 years old, Wells will be entering his sixth professional season having spent four of his last five seasons primarily as a starter (50 starts in 52 games).

But the six-foot-eight righty began his career as a reliever for Baltimore in 2021, making all 44 of his appearances out of the bullpen. With this in mind, it wouldn't be difficult to picture a situation where Wells slides back to a relief role should the club follow through on their plan to add significant starting pitching.

In an October 19 article forecasting the Opening Day five-man rotation, MASN's Roch Kubatko noted that he assumes that Wells will remain in his role as a starting pitcher.

Addressing three questions about the Orioles https://t.co/x1gR2Hy6cG #orioles
— Roch Kubatko (@masnRoch) October 19, 2025

Orioles expected to keep Tyler Wells in a starting role

In his end of year press conference just a few weeks ago, Elias addressed the possibility that Wells would be a bullpen candidate while revealing the current expectations heading into 2026.

“This has always been a conversation with Tyler for years, because he's good at both, which is impressive,” he said. “Not a lot of people can do that, and he also just hasn't happened to have the innings load to get through a whole 170-to-180 (inning) season healthy as a starter, he hasn't proven he can do it at the major league level."

“Whether that's something he can control or not, I don't really know, but it just hasn't happened yet. So, it's always a little bit tempting to have the reliever conversation with him. But if you got a guy that can start and be good as a starter, that's really valuable, and you always try to stick with that. That's the plan with Tyler.”

Tyler Wells, Wicked Sliders. 🤢 pic.twitter.com/sTVqxiX1dC
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 18, 2023

Wells was impressive in a small sample size in 2025, going 2-1 with a 2.91 ERA and 18 strikeouts across 21.2 innings. In his last full season before the injury, he was 7-6 and maintained a 3.64 ERA with 117 strikeouts over his career-high 118.2 innings.

But as Elias notes, Wells has yet to pitch over 120 innings in a season and has only eclipsed 100 twice, making 103.2 in 2022 before the 118.2 in 2023. Wells followed these two 20-plus start seasons with just three starts in 2024 before the elbow injury wiped him out for nearly two full seasons.

With this track record, it's fair for the organization to question if Wells has the durability to manage a heavy workload. But as Elias indicated, the club intends to find out if he can return as an effective starter, even if it is "tempting" to consider him for a relief role.

Orioles expected to keep Tyler Wells in a starting role

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